1st Sunday of Advent (B)

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THOUGHTS FOR THIS WEEKEND

First Sunday of Advent
Happy New Year!
Most of us will not forget 2020 in a hurry and the knock-on effects of the pandemic will last for many years to come. This New Year’s Eve will be very poignant for those who have lost loved ones or jobs in 2020, and maybe look towards 2021 with apprehension.
In this country, for many centuries, March 25th was the beginning of a New Year, the Feast of The Annunciation, Lady Day. Different religions have their own way of marking the change of times and seasons. We, as Christians, make a new start for the First Sunday of Advent as we remember, not only Christ’s promise to come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, but also in the second part of the season as the Scripture Readings and Prayers take us back to those wonderful days of his First Coming; the ways in which we are prepared to celebrate once more the birth in time and space of the Word made Flesh, Jesus Christ Our Saviour and Lord, born of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Bethlehem.

Last Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)

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THOUGHTS FOR THIS WEEKEND

Thoughts for the Feast of Christ the King.
“If I ruled the world”
I am sure all of us want a better world: one of justice and peace; with an end to poverty, hunger, disease and unemployment; and security for people so that they do not need to become economic migrants or refugees. A world where no-one is unjustly deprived of their liberty, and where we all have concern for the environment amid the issue of global warming. We believe in good hospitals, housing, education, employment and care for the most vulnerable - the list goes on…
We can do what we are able in our own society and state of life for the better; by even the most simple changes in our lives and priorities and by being more considerate and kindly to our fellow citizens in this country. Whether we are religious or not, we all want a better world.
As Christians the model for a better world is manifested in the Life, Ministry, Death and Resurrection of Jesus, called “the Man for others” and “the Servant King”.

33rd Sunday of the Year (A)

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THOUGHTS FOR THIS WEEKEND

Thoughts for the 33rd Sunday of the Year.
For several years after my Ordination as a priest I felt a bit of a fraud. I had celebrated many funerals and truly believed in the Christian message I preached, year in year out. But I had yet both to be with someone when they died and to lose someone very close to me. Until both these happened I was unable, really, to say with true conviction, “I know how you feel.”
We are coming to the end of the Church’s Liturgical Year; soon we will be celebrating the Feast of Christ The King on November 22nd and then the First Sunday of Advent on the 29th, when we are reminded of Christ’s promise to come again in Glory to judge the living and the departed as we express in the Creed. As indeed last week we remembered the dead of the two World Wars of the twentieth century and subsequent conflicts, giving thanks for such self-sacrifice and renewing our own commitment to justice and peace in our troubled world today.

32nd Sunday of the Year (A)

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THOUGHTS FOR THIS WEEKEND

Thoughts for the 32nd Sunday of the Year.
There is a saying, ’The road to Hell is paved with good intentions’. I would rather say it is the road to disappointment!
Throughout my life I have started and tried all sorts of things and never finished them.
I had piano lessons as a child to try to keep up with my really musically talented big sister, who later abandoned the really good upright piano we had for The Beatles and The Stones. The piano teacher eventually told my dad not to bother. He said, “Wait till he is older.” I am sure dad did not believe him and neither did I.
New Testament Greek to help study the Gospels at Seminary; that did not last.